The Summer Queen

by Margaret Pemberton

  Instead, although joy was flooding through her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, she said with great restraint, hardly able to believe she was awake and not dreaming, ‘Yes, Eddy. I would be honoured to accept your proposal.’

  Sagging with relief, he rose to his feet. Pulling a small jewellery box out of his trouser pocket, he took from it a magnificent ruby-and-diamond ring. Taking hold of her left hand, he slid the ring onto her fourth finger, saying as he did so, ‘Thank you, May darling.’ And then, a sudden note of uncertainty in his voice, ‘You don’t mind my calling you “darling”, do you, May?’

  She shook her head, too full of emotion to speak.

  ‘I believe,’ he said, his voice thickening, ‘that on such occasions it is customary for the gentleman to kiss his fiancée?’

  She flushed scarlet. It was the first time they had been alone in a room together. It was the first time they had held hands and Eddy was quite certain that, when he kissed her, it would be her first kiss. Aware that, under the circumstances, it was tenderness and not passion that was needed, when he drew her into his arms, he did so with great gentleness.

  A tremor ran through May, and for a hideous moment he wondered if it was caused by her reluctance to be kissed, and then her arms slid up and around his neck, her fingers tightening in his hair.

  With her heart beating fast against his, he lowered his head to hers. Her lips were warm and soft and, to his pleasure and stunned surprise, they parted beneath his, her body bending into his as if doing so was the most natural thing in the world.

  The following moments were among the most pleasurable he had ever experienced and, when he finally lifted his head from hers, his eyes were dazed by the discovery that beneath his fiancée’s always cool, self-possessed composure lay a passionate hidden fire.

  He took hold of her hands and, as their fingers locked tightly, he said unsteadily, ‘I think this arrangement is going to work out amazingly well, May.’

  ‘Yes.’ There was shy and joyful certainty in her voice. ‘It is. And how surprised people are going to be!’

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  DECEMBER 1891, MARLBOROUGH HOUSE

  Her parents’ reaction to the news that Eddy was about to become their son-in-law was one of near-hysterical rapture. ‘There will be no more nonsense about May being second-class royalty now!’ her father declared, so red in the face with triumph that May was terrified he was going to have a heart attack. ‘And it isn’t only May who will be elevated from being a Serene Highness to a Royal Highness. As her father, surely I will be given the title of Royal Highness as well?’

  Her mother’s concerns had been of a far different nature. ‘Where will the wedding take place, May? Will it be at St Paul’s? As Eddy is heir presumptive, it should be at St Paul’s. And who will be your bridesmaids? Royal protocol being what it is, I doubt we shall have much say in the matter, although Toria and Maudie certainly, and Looloo and dear Marie-Louise as maids of honour, but you must have at least ten bridesmaids, and care must be taken that no one feels snubbed at not being asked. And then, of course, there is the question of your wedding gown. And of where you will live. Has darling Eddy mentioned yet where you will be setting up home? Perhaps St James’s Palace?’

  May wrote the next morning, on Luton Hoo headed notepaper:

  And so, Alicky, I am engaged to Eddy, Can you believe it? I am certainly having trouble in doing so! An hour ago we had our official engagement photograph taken in Luton Hoo’s garden, and Eddy has now left for London and Windsor to break the news personally to his parents and to get the Queen’s official sanction for our marriage. Dolly has been telegrammed and is already on his way here. I wish you could have seen the reaction when I walked into the ballroom arm-in-arm with Eddy and with a ruby-and-diamond engagement ring on my finger!

  Alicky was the only person within the family that May wrote to personally. She did, though, write to Thaddeus, telling him that he would soon be receiving a very unexpected wedding invitation. She wrote in a similar manner to Belinda Light, adding that she no longer needed to trouble her aunt about the availability of I Cedri and telling her how much their long-standing friendship meant to her.

  The next day a public announcement was made. All the daily newspapers carried their engagement picture, and congratulatory telegrams began arriving at Luton Hoo in shoals. May’s happiness was dizzying, and not even Toria’s rudeness dimmed it.

  ‘I don’t see why you are looking so happy,’ Toria had said. ‘Everyone knows Eddy isn’t in love with you, or you with him, and I think he has been very self-sacrificing in asking you to marry him. Don’t think for a minute he has done so because he truly wants to marry you. He’s asked you to marry him because, for some unfathomable reason, Granny Queen has insisted on it – although how she can have forgotten all about you not being truly royal, I can’t even begin to imagine.’

  Under normal circumstances, rudeness was something May never indulged in, but white-hot indignation got the better of her. ‘As you can’t begin to imagine it,’ she snapped back, ‘don’t bother attempting it! You’re making a very good job of trying to spoil my happiness, Toria, but you’re not succeeding one little bit.’

  Toria’s eyes narrowed. ‘I truly believe you’ve schemed your way into this engagement, May Teck, and while other people may conveniently forget your Württemberg heritage, it’s something I will never do.’

  ‘And neither will I, Toria, for it’s something I have never been ashamed of. And as you have finally expressed your feelings about me so bluntly, if you choose to opt out of being one of my bridesmaids, I will quite understand.’

  Toria sucked in her breath. For her not to be a bridesmaid, at a celebration as important as Eddy’s wedding, was unthinkable. She didn’t truly think May would be able to exclude her, but it wasn’t a risk she was prepared to run and she finally clamped her lips tight shut.

  Coming from Toria, the spitefulness hadn’t been unexpected. What was unexpected was Maudie’s muted reaction to the news that May was about to become her sister-in-law.

  ‘Why you, May?’ she had said, genuinely bewildered. ‘I simply don’t understand it. Whose idea was it? Granny Queen’s? Papa’s?’

  ‘I like to think it was Eddy’s idea, although he had to get the Queen’s permission and his father’s permission before proposing to me.’

  Maudie had looked more puzzled than ever. ‘But you, of all people, know how deeply in love Eddy is with Hélène. And because she and Eddy once asked you for advice, Hélène’s going to be doubly heartbroken that his duty-marriage is to be with you.’

  ‘I hope not. I hope Hélène will be relieved that he is marrying someone with whom he is already friends, and someone who understands and respects the feelings that she and Eddy still have for each other.’

  To May’s intense disappointment, Maudie still hadn’t looked convinced.

  When Dolly arrived, and as soon as the door of her room had closed behind them, he said, ‘You don’t have to go through with this if you don’t want to, Sis. Don’t marry Eddy just to make Ma and Pa happy. Don’t be dragooned against your will into one of Aunt Queen’s matchmaking fiascos.’

  She hugged him. ‘I’m not being dragooned into anything, Dolly. Although not many people are aware of it, Eddy and I are friends and, although I’ve always been careful not to let anyone become aware of it, I’ve had a crush on him ever since I was twelve. Trust me when I say I think myself the luckiest and most fortunate young woman in the whole wide world, and that nothing – absolutely nothing – could make me happier than I am at this moment.’

  Dolly still didn’t look as if he believed her and, to show him how truthful she was being, May picked up her skirts and, laughing with sheer joy, waltzed round and round the room, saying as she finally collapsed into an exhausted heap on the sofa beside him, ‘Now do you believe that I’m deliriously happy, Dolly?’

  Two days later, accompanied by Dolly and her parents, May travelled by train from L
uton to St Pancras station. When she had departed from it less than a week ago there had been no one to see her and her parents off, for they were, after all, only minor royals leaving to attend a house party in Bedfordshire.

  Their arrival back into London was far different. The station concourse was thronged with members of the public, all wanting to wish her well. Although she couldn’t see it, somewhere a brass band was playing. The people of London were never shy of vocalizing their feelings and as she stepped down from the train there were cries of ‘Good on yer, Princess May!’, ‘God bless you, Princess May’ and, cheekily from several of the women, ‘Give Prince Eddy a kiss from me, May!’

  It was her first experience of being in such public focus, but she had her mother’s lifelong example at how to react to public adulation. As she was handed a bouquet of flowers from a top-hatted, tail-coated director of the station, May waved exuberantly to the crowd with her free hand and, with all her mother’s infectious spontaneity, continued smiling and waving all the way to their waiting carriage.

  It took them straight to Marlborough House, where Eddy and his parents were waiting for them and where they were to have lunch.

  To May’s disappointment, there was no opportunity for a private reunion and, in the presence of his parents and future in-laws, Eddy’s kiss merely brushed her cheek.

  His mother’s greeting was far more relaxed. ‘Dearest May,’ the Princess of Wales said, taking both her hands in hers. ‘I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that the person I am losing my darling boy to is yourself, and not some foreign princess.’

  As May was well aware that Eddy’s mother had been fervently in favour of Eddy being allowed to marry Hélène, it occurred to her that she shouldn’t believe everything her charming mother-in-law-to-be said.

  Where Eddy’s father was concerned, May had, like her mother, always been wary of him, not liking his unkind and embarrassing ‘chaffing’. On this occasion he was, though, on his best behaviour and seemed sincerely pleased that the long-standing question of Eddy’s marriage had finally been satisfactorily resolved.

  ‘Though you must keep Eddy up to the mark,’ he said, as if Eddy wasn’t present. ‘He’s been in need of a good, sensible young woman for a long time, and the country is going to expect a great deal from both of you.’

  Eddy’s face was expressionless, and for the first time May became uncomfortably aware that there were underlying tensions between him and his father. She had been a regular visitor to Marlborough House ever since she had been a child, but she had always been there as a playmate for Looloo, Toria and Maudie. Until now, her interaction with his parents had been limited to a polite ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ at large family parties. She had never before dined with the family on such intimate terms and although, to her relief, her future father-in-law was being pleasant towards her, he was constantly disparaging whenever he spoke to Eddy.

  Her Aunt Alix’s attitude towards her son was entirely different, but even more unsettling. As they walked into the dining room, she lifted Eddy’s arm and placed it so that it rested around her neck. Throughout lunch she frequently laid her hand on his. Whenever she spoke his name it was preceded, or followed, by a lavish endearment.

  Eddy neither looked comfortable nor uncomfortable at such excessive physical attention from his mother. Instead his expression remained unreadable; almost disinterested. Whatever the Waleses’ private family life was like, before lunch was over, May was certain it was nothing at all like the uncomplicated, affectionate, happy-go-lucky family dynamic that she had grown up with at White Lodge.

  Hard on the heels of lunch at Marlborough House had come a summons for them to make their way to Windsor, where the Queen wished to congratulate them on their engagement.

  Again, there was no opportunity for May and Eddy to be on their own, for her parents accompanied them.

  At Windsor, the Queen told them how happy she was at their betrothal; how the day would come when, as King and Queen and Emperor and Empress, they would both bear unimaginable responsibilities. ‘But I am sure,’ she said, clasping May’s hand tightly, ‘that the two of you will find strength in each other, as I and my darling Albert did.’

  There was an obligatory visit to Prince Albert’s mausoleum, in order that they could receive his posthumous blessing.

  ‘It’s traditional whenever any of Grandpa Albert’s children and grandchildren marries,’ Eddy whispered, when May looked slightly alarmed by the idea. ‘It makes Granny happy.’

  Before they left Windsor, the Queen insisted that, as May was so soon to be her grandchild by marriage, she should no longer refer to her as ‘Aunt Queen’, but as ‘Granny Queen’.

  ‘For that is how I think of you now,’ she said. ‘Eddy is a dear boy, who has experienced a lot of heartache. I sense that your feelings for him are deep and sincere and that any heartache, for both of you, is now blessedly at an end.’

  ‘What did Granny Queen mean by your “heartache”?’ Eddy asked when, for the first time since Luton Hoo, they finally had a little privacy together, walking arm-in-arm on a frosted path in the garden of Marlborough House. ‘God knows, my own heartache has been public enough, but I didn’t know that you’d experienced heartache as well.’

  May was tempted to tell him of the seemingly hopeless crush she’d had on him for so many years, but was too unsure of how he might react to do so.

  She said, ‘I suffered a great deal of heartache on my mama and papa’s behalf, when their financial difficulties were such that the bailiffs were called in and many of our family possessions were sold at public auction.’

  ‘That period of time must have been an utter nightmare for you.’ There was deep sympathy in his voice. ‘I wasn’t in England when it was all taking place, I was in Lausanne, attempting to get to grips with French, but my mother wrote to me about it.’ He took hold of her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. ‘What was the immediate aftermath?’

  It was the first physical touch of affection he had shown her since he had left Luton Hoo to inform his parents and the Queen of their engagement.

  Weak with relief, she summoned up the nerve to give it an answering squeeze. ‘And then, at the Queen’s request, we left England in order to live somewhere that wouldn’t stretch our finances too much. After a short stay with some of Papa’s Württemberg relations, who have a villa on Lake Constance, we moved on to Italy and settled in Florence.’

  ‘Florence? Wasn’t that deathly dull?’

  Having always known how badly educated all the Waleses were, May was more amused than shocked by his response. ‘No,’ she said, looking forward to all the things she was going to open his eyes to. ‘Florence is wonderful. I’d like for us to go there together.’

  ‘It would be nice to do so on our honeymoon, but I’m afraid there’s no chance. The powers-that-be have decreed our honeymoon destination to be Sandringham.’

  It was a disappointment, but not an unexpected one. Royal honeymoons were always spent in one or other of the many royal palaces, or in the stately home of a friend. When her parents had married, her mother’s friend, Lady Alford, had made her family home, Ashridge, available to them for their honeymoon. Eddy’s parents had spent their honeymoon at Osborne House. That she and Eddy would be spending their honeymoon at Sandringham – although hopefully not when the rest of the family were in residence – wasn’t much of a surprise. The word ‘honeymoon’ had, though, rendered her speechless with embarrassment.

  Aware of it, knowing the reason for it and feeling more than a little embarrassed about it himself, Eddy said, after the silence between them had stretched for a full minute, ‘The honeymoon could be a little tricky, May, seeing as how we’ve only held hands a couple of times and shared one kiss. The extraordinary thing is, though, that I feel completely at ease with you, and I hope you are beginning to feel at ease with me.’

  ‘I am.’ Her throat was suddenly dry.

  He cleared his throat. ‘During the year when Hélène and I wer
e struggling to get permission to marry, opportunities to be alone together without a chaperone being present were few and far between, and it was Looloo and Fife who were our salvation. They regularly invited us to Sheen Lodge and, as a married woman, Looloo took on the role of chaperone and did so in a way that discreetly gave us time together alone.’

  He stopped walking, giving her his slow, heart-stopping smile. ‘Looloo and Fife don’t look like a couple of romantics, but they are, and I think it would be a good idea if they were to offer some hospitality again, don’t you?’

  Blushing furiously, May nodded in agreement and this time, when Eddy lowered his head to hers, his kiss wasn’t to seal their engagement; it was simply because it seemed a most natural and pleasant thing to do.

  Shortly after May’s return to White Lodge, a messenger arrived from Windsor with news of the wedding date.

  ‘It is to be the twenty-seventh of February and is to take place in St Paul’s Cathedral,’ her mother announced, giddy with excitement. ‘Goodness, but what a lot of arranging is going to have to take place in such a short space of time! A wedding gown to be made. A trousseau to be created. Flowers to be decided upon. All the furnishings and decor of your married home to be agreed upon. And on top of all that, there is Christmas.’

  For the next few weeks May’s feet scarcely touched the ground. When not being fitted for her wedding gown and trousseau, plus an entire new wardrobe appropriate for her new role in life, she was out and about in London with Eddy. They went to the theatre several times, always to see a musical production and, because they had enjoyed it so much, going back a second time to hear Cavalleria Rusticana. They visited the ‘Venice in London’ exhibition at Olympia, where they floated around a replica of the Grand Canal in a gondola; and they chose wallpapers for the spacious apartment they were so soon to be moving into at St James’s Palace.